KYIV, Oct 27 (Reuters) – Kyiv plans to allocate 1 billion hryvnias ($22 million) to water crossings over the River Dnipro which bisects the city, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Tuesday, after a spate of Russian attacks on bridges.
Russia has disrupted transport for Kyiv residents by hitting bridges this month, part of a significant step up in drone and missile strikes on logistics in and around the Ukrainian capital in recent months.
The Pivdennyi (Southern) Bridge, one of Kyiv’s six main bridges, was hit overnight by four Iskander ballistic missiles, a Ukrainian military source told Reuters, an attack decried by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as a “serious escalation”.
Disruptions to bridge traffic could become a critical issue for Kyiv residents who live and work on opposite sides of the wide river and have to commute across daily.
One of the city’s metro lines runs over Pivdennyi bridge that also carries road traffic. Russia has targeted other bridges in the city with drones.
Klitschko said on Telegram that the city’s defence council had discussed a “project to build combined water crossings over the River Dnipro and the access roads leading to them.”
He did not give further details.
Water crossings come in various forms, including pontoons, fords and other low-lying structures that enable people and vehicles to cross.
Such structures have not been used in Kyiv since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
($1 = 45.5605 hryvnias)
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa and Tom Balmforth; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Alexandra Hudson)
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